How Common Core Teaches Subtraction

Michael Snyder
The Truth
April 21, 2014

The dumbing down of America is accelerating.  A massive federal takeover of education known as “Common Core” is attempting to impose nationwide academic standards on public schools throughout the entire country.  Thanks to the backing of billionaire Bill Gates, endless promotion by the U.S. Department of Education, and financial bribes to state governments by the Obama administration, 45 states and Washington, D.C. have already agreed to implement the full Common Core standards in their schools.  Unfortunately, these “standards” are doing to public education what Obamacare is doing to our health care system – absolutely ruining it.  Just look at how basic math instruction has changed.  Posted below is a comparison between the “old method” of subtraction and the “new method” of subtraction being taught in many of our schools.  When I first came across this on Facebook, I thought that it was a joke…

I thought that there was no possible way that this could be real.  I really thought that this must have come from some sort of parody website.

But it is actually true.

Here is another example of this.  The following is an incredibly bizarre Common Core math problem and the response by one very frustrated parent that has gone viral all over the Internet recently…

The frustration being experienced by that parent is quite understandable.  When I first looked at that math question, I could almost feel myself getting dumber while I read it.

Is this kind of “math” really preparing our kids for the real world?

I think not.

But these are the kinds of questions that textbook writers come up with as they attempt to implement the standards of Common Core…

The question appears to be aiming for several of the main Common Core math standards for second grade:

1) A requirement that students understand place value, for instance, that “100 can be thought of as a bundle of ten tens — called a ‘hundred.’”

2) That students be able to “add and subtract within 1000, using concrete models or drawings and strategies based on place value … and relate the strategy to a written method.” Also that they “understand that in adding or subtracting three-digit numbers, one adds or subtracts hundreds and hundreds, tens and tens, ones and ones; and sometimes it is necessary to compose or decompose tens or hundreds.”

3) That they can “explain why addition and subtraction strategies work, using place value and the properties of operations.”

4) And that they can “represent whole numbers as lengths from 0 on a number line diagram with equally spaced points corresponding to the numbers 0, 1, 2, …, and represent whole-number sums and differences within 100 on a number line diagram.”

Here is another example of some Common Core math…

What?

Are you kidding me?

Why make things so convoluted?

Are they actually trying to make our kids hate math more than they already do?

And old terms such as “add” and “subtract” are out.  As you can see from the “Common Core – Parent Cheat Sheet” posted below, our kids are now learning how to “increase” and “decrease”…

And of course Common Core is not just messing with math.

Just check out the 4th grade homework assignment posted below…

If you cannot read what it says in the picture, here is a transcript of the text…

Ruby sat on the bed she shared with her husband holding a hairclip. There was something mysterious and powerful about the cheaply manufactured neon clip that she was fondling suspiciously. She didn’t recognize the hairclip. It was too big to be their daughter’s, and Ruby was sure that it wasn’t hers. She hadn’t had friends over in weeks, but here was this hairclip, little and green with a few long black hair strands caught in it. Ruby ran her fingers through her own blonde hair. She had just been vacuuming when she noticed this small, bright green object under the bed. Now their life would never be the same. She would wait here until Mike returned home.

Why is Ruby so affected by the hairclip?

How has the hairclip affected Ruby’s relationship?

From where did the hairclip most likely come?

Why in the world are 4th grade students being taught lessons about husbands cheating on their wives?

Is this appropriate?

Unfortunately, this kind of inappropriate material can be found throughout Common Core-based textbooks all over the country.

Those promoting Common Core have gone to great lengths to make it appear that teachers, parents and students are embracing these new standards, but as Alex Newman recently detailed, that is not the case at all.  In fact, there has been a huge backlash against Common Core even in bastions of liberalism such as New York…

While the Big Business front group has been producing ads purporting to show that “teachers” support the standards, that lie is easily put to rest by witnessing the revolt among teachers in New York, where the Common Core roll-out has advanced faster than in other states. There, the board of the state teachers union voted unanimously against Common Core as it has been implemented so far. New York State Assemblyman Al Graf, a member of the Assembly Education Committee with a degree in education, even told The New American that the controversial standards represent “state-sponsored child abuse.” Even the governor in the establishment stronghold has been forced to retreat slightly on Common Core in the face of the public uprising. Opponents of the education takeover say this is just the start.

We live at a time when Americans have already become incredibly dumbed down.

Do we really want to sink even lower?

Posted below is stunning video of an Illinois Curriculum Director explaining that under Common Core, it is okay for children to say that “three times four equals eleven” as long as they can give the reasons for their answer…

What will our country look like if this insanity is allowed to continue?

At this point, only 43 percent of all Americans aged 18 to 24 can correctly point out the state of Ohio on a map of the United States.

How much dumber can we get and still survive as a nation?